Getting There
by kate882
Summary: When Jack got back from his trip with the Doctor Ianto was avoiding him. Finally, Jack got tired of it and confronted Ianto. One-shot.


Ianto stared blankly at his boss, only allowing the slightest widening of his eyes in surprise at being cornered. Literally. Jack had him backed into a corner with an arm on either side of him to keep him where he was. "Is there something I can help you with, sir?" Ianto asked, using a polite but detached tone, as he spoke to Jack.

"Ianto, stop calling me sir." Jack said. His eyes were searching Ianto's, looking for any emotion. Anything. Anger, sadness, happiness, love, jealousy, hurt, concern, anything. He wasn't finding anything, and it was worrying him.

Ianto met Jack's eyes steadily, keeping his expression blank. "Alright. Is there anything I can help you with, Mr. Harkness?" He rephrased his question.

"Ianto, you know that isn't what I meant." Jack sighed. "Can you just call me Jack? You know, like you used to before you started avoiding me?"

Before you left, Ianto thought bitterly, but didn't say it out loud. "That's not exactly professional, sir. Speaking of things that are hardly professional, the position we are in is a bit uncomfortable."

"Since when are we professional with each other?" Jack asked, starting to get angry. "The sounds you made in bed with me certainly weren't professional and neither were the positions we got into, but you didn't seem to mind then."

Ianto kept himself from snapping at Jack. He was pretty sure that was said to get some sort of reaction. "I want to go home." He said calmly.

"We're having a conversation." Jack countered.

"Not one that I wish to be having. It's after hours and you are in my way. I want to go home. You can't keep me here."

"Ianto, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong." Jack said quietly.

"I didn't ask for your help!" Finally Ianto had raised his voice, anger showing on his face.

Jack saw it and pressed on. Anger was better than nothing at all. Maybe he would finally get some answers. "I know you didn't. You've hardly spoken to me for the past few weeks. The only way I was able to get you to talk to me was to trap you here. I want to help though, so tell me what's going on."

"No. I don't want your help." Ianto was scrambling to put his emotionless mask back in place. He knew it would start to slip if he was around Jack for too long.

"But what do you need help with? Even if it's not my help?" Jack pushed.

"Nothing, Jack! Just leave me alone! You already did once! Why the hell is it so hard this time?" Ianto shouted.

Jack looked as if he had been physically struck. He had done this to Ianto. He had made Ianto feel like he had to hide all emotion. He had assumed it was something that had happened while he was gone. Not that it was his own leaving.

"Ianto . . . Ianto I wasn't trying to upset you when I left." He said softly, moving a bit closer.

Ianto pressed himself as close to the wall behind him as he could get when Jack moved closer. "You left. You left for a year. You didn't even tell us you were going. We didn't know if you were coming back. I still waited for you. I waited every fucking day for you, Jack. And every day you didn't come back. Until one day you finally did, acting like nothing had happened, and telling Gwen that you had come back for her. So if you weren't trying to hurt me what were you trying to do with all that? I know you don't like that I've been avoiding you, but what else am I supposed to do? Get close again, only to have you leave? Hell, maybe next time you'll take Gwen with you and then you won't have to come back at all." Ianto tried to sound angry, he tied to sound furious. He sounded broken. He sounded like he had when he first realized Jack had left them of his own free will. That Jack had actually left them. He hated that. It had taken so long for him to piece himself together and put his walls back up, and here Jack was tearing them down with such ease. "Damn it, Jack. I love you and you left." Ianto said quietly. He looked down to hide the tears that had started streaming down his face. He didn't want Jack to see him cry.

Jack was horrified that he had done this to Ianto. Even more so when he noticed the tears dripping off of Ianto's down cast face. Jack moved his hands off the wall, but put one on Ianto's shoulder so that the other wouldn't run off. He used his free hand to gently lift Ianto's face and then wipe away the tears, even though they were quickly replaced by new ones.

"I guess first I should explain what I said to Gwen. That one will take less time. I was telling that to the whole team. I would have said so to you as well if you weren't avoiding me. I came back for my team. All of you. You in particular, Ianto." Jack told him.

Ianto kept quiet, so Jack assumed he was waiting for the next part of his explanation.

"I really don't want to talk about what happened while I was gone. Let's just say it wasn't pleasant and I would have rather have been here with you. When I left I didn't think I would be gone for so long. You worked for Torchwood One. You know about the Doctor, right?"

"Yes, I know about the Doctor. He is the reason that Torchwood was created in the first place. He travels through time and space in a blue police box called the TARDIS, usually with a girl at his side but there have been guys." Ianto answered.

"Right. Well he's a good friend of mine. I've travelled with him. Something happened to me while traveling with him and a girl named Rose Tyler though. After they abandoned me I found that I couldn't die. I had been killed by a Dalek. I should have stayed dead, but I woke up. And then I kept waking up every time I died. I needed answers, but Rose and the Doctor were gone. I left because the Doctor was back, and I wanted to know what had happened to me. I found out. Rose had absorbed the time vortex and brought me back with it. By the time I got this answer though the TARDIS had taken the Doctor, a new companion named Martha, and myself somewhere else. I figured I could just come back to the same day I left and not have you guys all worried since the Doctor has a time machine, but some things happened and I couldn't come back to the day I left because of paradoxes. I never meant to be gone for so long. He offered to let me travel with him again, but I told him no because I wanted to come back to you."

Jack pulled Ianto into a tight hug. For a moment Ianto tensed further than he had already been, but slowly he relaxed and even slower he allowed his arms to wrap around Jack as well, a few more tears escaping because he hadn't gotten his mask back completely yet.

"Oh, and Ianto?"

"Yes, Jack?"

"I love you too." Jack said quietly, placing a light kiss to Ianto's temple.

A small smile formed on Ianto's face. It was tiny and hardly there, but there none the less. He gave Jack a quick kiss on the lips, before returning his head to Jack's shoulder where it had been resting while they hugged, keeping his arms around Jack. They weren't completely okay yet, but they were getting there.


End file.
